12 Recovery Memoirs by Black Authors You Need to Read

Whether readers are just beginning their recovery journey or seeking additional support in maintaining sobriety, this workbook serves as a valuable resource. Its user-friendly format, practical exercises, and evidence-based approach make it accessible and effective for individuals at any stage of recovery. By engaging with the material in this workbook, readers can cultivate the skills and resilience needed to overcome addiction and live a fulfilling life in recovery. “Rewired” is not just a book about addiction—it’s a guide to reclaiming one’s life and discovering the joy of drug addiction living in alignment with one’s true values and aspirations. Whether you’re struggling with substance abuse, compulsive behaviors, or negative thought patterns, this book offers a roadmap to liberation and self-discovery. Set against the backdrop of New York City’s glamorous and cutthroat fashion industry, Marnell’s story is both a cautionary tale and a gripping narrative of survival.

New & Upcoming Thrillers to Electrify Your Summer Reading List

• Hope is often nurtured within the context of community and relationships, making these elements essential when choosing Christian memoirs.
• It got me thinking the one thing I never wanted to be true… maybe it is the alcohol that’s making me so miserable?
• Admitting you have a problem — not to mention actually getting sober — is no small feat.
• When I stopped drinking alcohol, I was desperate to know the stories of other people who’d also taken this road less traveled.
• Pooley’s candid narrative and relatable experiences make The Sober Diaries a must-read for anyone seeking inspiration and guidance in their own journey towards sobriety.

Effective use of descriptive language can greatly enhance your reading experience. Vivid portrayals of the author’s best books for alcoholics challenges and triumphs in faith draw you in and make their journey feel real. The best memoirs balance personal anecdotes with universal themes, ensuring the content resonates with a broader audience while remaining authentic. Furthermore, these narratives create a sense of community among readers. By sharing relatable stories, they emphasize the collective Christian experience and the importance of faith in overcoming life’s challenges. This connection can uplift your spirit and deepen your understanding of faith.

The Night of the Gun: A Reporter Investigates the Darkest Story of His Life. His Own.

This was the first book I read on this subject, and I instantly could relate to her feelings. She made a huge impact on me and is someone I will always be grateful to. When I stopped drinking alcohol, I was desperate to know the stories of other people who’d also taken this road less traveled. During the most unsettling time of my life, I craved all the messy, tragic, complex, wonderful stories that could show me what was on the other side. Nobody in my real life could meet that need, so I turned—as I always do when I need comfort, encouragement, or inspiration—to books. But Ditlevsen’s single conventional moment also, I think, underlines her originality.

) Understanding Codependency: How to Overcome Abuse, Narcissism, and Emotional Dependency by Darlene Lancer, LMFT

Binge drinking was baked into the expat experience, so my concerns about my drinking felt like a secret I had to carry. At the time, I lived outside of the US in a country where alcohol was illegal for the local population but also rampant within the expat community. As a family-owned and operated company, we demonstrate our values each day. We respect individual employees for their unique potential and hold ourselves accountable for helping them to achieve their goals. These books offer a range of perspectives on Addiction Nonfiction, covering various aspects and approaches to the subject. And now, presented in no particular order, here are the best memoirs of 2024.

Substance abuse can be just as destructive for loved ones as for addicts themselves, as journalist David Sheff’s devastating memoir of his teenage son’s methamphetamine addiction attests. He worries ceaselessly, continuously anticipating another late-night phone call, from Nic, from an emergency room, from the police. Growing up on her family’s 25-acre farm in Maine, Erin French developed a lifelong passion for cooking and food. She worked as a line cook in her family’s diner and eventually became a professional chef herself, opening the world-renowned restaurant The Lost Kitchen. Along the way, single motherhood, a broken marriage, and an addiction to prescription pills presented obstacles that French wasn’t sure she could overcome. But she prevailed, thanks to the lessons first learned on the farm and the love and support of her community.

The Color of Hope: People of Color Mental Health Narratives edited by Vanessa Hazzard

Here’s a celebrity memoir from famous actor and comedian Russell Brand that also offers helpful advice for recovery. Brand has suffered from a variety of addictions—heroin, alcohol, sex, fame, food, bad relationships, and eBay—and in Recovery, he offers listeners insights into what he’s learned on the road to recovery for every type of addiction. The actor performs the audiobook himself with the right balance of humor and sincerity. She also nests the stories of ordinary people who have dealt with addiction into the mix, changing their names to preserve Alcoholics Anonymous–enforced obscurity, creating an expansive, generous collage.

Functioning and fun-loving, this author’s love for wine hardly seems like a problem until her attempt to cut back proves much more challenging than she had imagined. She begins to share her attempts to sober up anonymously online and ends up finding support, community, and the strength to battle her addiction in the most unlikely of places. Stefanie Wilder-Taylor has always had a complicated relationship with alcohol. Finally, at the behest of his coworkers and boss, he ends up in a rehab that specifically caters to gay and lesbian patients. Once his 30 days are up, he has to figure out how to return to his New York City lifestyle sans alcohol. Burroughs’ story is one of triumph and loss, professional success and personal failure, finding your way to sobriety, falling into relapse, and starting all over again.

• Mary Karr’s memoir, set in Boston (Cambridge), chronicles her path toward sobriety with crackling honesty and wry humor as she effectively connects her family dynamics as a child living in a chaotic home to her adult state of perpetual chaos.
• Thanks to an alcohol- and drug-free life, McKowen now feels all of her feelings, no longer has to balance multiple lies, and is fully present with her daughter.
• The journey through addiction to recovery is a deeply personal experience, with no two people going though the same process to reach sobriety.
• I was struck by the urgency, generosity, and beauty of each of these narratives—if a memoir is included here, you can assume that I found myself savoring and underlining sentences.
• For anyone hiding in the shadows of shame, this book is a guiding light.
• They can transform the way you think about addiction, bust stigma, give you actionable advice to apply to your recovery, and make you feel less alone.

Born to Persian parents at the height of the Islamic Revolution and raised amid a vibrant, loving, and gossipy Iranian diaspora in the American heartland, Melody Moezzi was bound for a bipolar life. At 18, she began battling a severe physical illness, and her community stepped up, filling her hospital rooms with roses, lilies and hyacinths. Through meticulous research and profoundly human storytelling, Macy delves into the origins of the opioid epidemic, tracing its devastating impact on individuals, families, and communities. You can hear my Byron Lane interview on Book Gang as we discuss how his writing process has evolved, and what he learned from writing this story.

How to Murder Your Life by Cat Marnell

Straightforward and to the point, Carr helps you examine the reasons you drink in the first place in The Easy Way to Control Alcohol. For example, he explains why stating alcohol is poison and repeating the tagline “Never Question the Decision” can help you change your unconscious thoughts about alcohol, and shift your mindset. This book is a great place to start if you’ve been feeling sober curious. Reading We are the Luckiest by Laura McKowen can quite possibly save your life. For anyone hiding in the shadows of shame, this book is a guiding light.